Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1887-02-26
THE MINGO TROUBLE.
THE CAUSES LEADING TO IT ACCURATELY
OUTLINED.
ThA Present Stains Of the Difficulty
as Ascertained By q Register
Reporter.

One would hardly think that the break
inc of n single crane would he the
sought ont by fate to put the two greatest
labor organizations in the world at vari-
apce, throw ., 700 men out of employment,
and arouse the anxiety of whole commu-
mites. Such is, however, the case, and
the breaking of a crane at a critical time
in the Mingo steel plant has caused the
A~malgamated Association and the Knights
of Labor to discover differences not easily
overcome.
A REGISTER reporter visited the scene OF
action yesterday, and as near AZ posi-
BILE learned the true inwardness Of the
trouble from the beginning to the present
time. The steel plant men signed a scale
as Knights of Labor some time since, to be
in effect one year. Before presenting the
scale, Mr.. W. E. Grossly, representing
both the men and managers,
gathered information to form a
scale basis from all the steel working
sections of the country and from thetigures
furnished the scale was formed. Things
went on nicely till a set of fourteen rules
were presented by the managers, which
rules were refused by the men. Then on
February third the crane used to convey
the heated blooms from the soaking pit"
to the blooming mill broke down and an
impromptu railway was built to carry them
in its stead. By this method only about
twenty-five blooms could be rolled per day.
The insisted that the men IN the
converting pit should stay on at
work and only convert as much steel as
could be rolled by the mill in its crippled
condition. This the men refused TO do,
and asked to be allowed to work ahead of
the blooming mill and make a full days
work or else be paid for a full day OF one
hundred tons for the piece OF a days work
performed. This was refused by the bosses,
on account of a clause in the scale which
saws, men shall only be paid for actual
tonnage" and claimed by the men to refer
to q matter entirely different from the one
at issue. Accordingly the men went on
strike, and on the very same day, by pre-
arrangement and with no knowledge of the
K. of l.. strike, William Weihe, of the
Amalgamation, came to Mingo to organize
the steel planters into a lodge of the ANAL
gamation. In the afternoon the steel men
met and were organized by President
Weihe, and the trouble commenced.
They soon discovered that the Amalga-
nation, to which they now belong as well
as TO the Knights OF Labor, has not only a
scale of prices but rules under which to
work. one of these rules is that when men
stay in the plant and are hindered from
making a full days work by broken ma
chinery they shall be raid for 100 tons
This rule being found not in contliction
with the scale of the K. If L., was adopted
by the men. They felt J very strong hk-
inc for the new association, but however
appealed TO their master workman. He
sent 10 Bellaire for District Master Work
man Shuttleworth, who went up, but owing
10 business in Bellaire, could not remain
TO attend a meeting. Hereturned theneXt
day accompanied by T. II. Stanton, OF
Martins Ferry, of the District Board, and
with committeeman Bailey and Organizer
Kavenaugh, arranged with the company for
arbitration without consulting the mill
committee or allowing its members to be
present. This stirred up the Ill will OF
many of the strikers, and they appealed to
the Authorization for aid in settling the
trouble, and finally took the matter en-
tirely out of Mr.. Bailey's handsand trans
ferred il to Messrs. Weihe and Martin, of
the AmalgamatiOn, claiming that their
X. of l.. scale only governed rates OF
WAGES and not the rules of working, which
are now in dispute. Mr.. Bailey still, how
ever, insisted on the mel going Ill, and as
he claims, living up to their agreement,
and threatened to open the mill to all
Corners if it were not started at once. This
has been done, and only two trials made,
and those not at all successfully, by men
brought from down the river about Bellaire
and this city. The final conference was
held in Steubenville on Thursday night,
and resulted in a complete rupture,
and IN end of all good
feeling between the two assocla-
tions. Mr.. Baily has heralded to the
world that he will start the mill and
Messrs. Weihe and Martin have expressed
their willingness and intention to stay and
influence all conner not to 20 to work.
Among the strikers the feeling all seems to
be in favor of adopting the Amalgamatlon
rules, and still living up to the X. OF L..
scale of prices, and as one put it, being
good Knights and Amalgamated men at
the same time" Said he, do You sup
pose Mr.. ShuttlewOrth would appeal a
grievance of his as a glass engraver to the
X. of L.? No; he would take it to his own
union for settlement. The X. Of l.. can
give us q scale, but it can't make rules
general enough in character to cover our
business in connection with the many
other branches of business it covers. 1t is
like a cure.all physician, while the Anal
gamation is q specialist DEVOTED only to
diseases of the iron and steel business. For
instance, the committee which had charge
of our case for the X. of l.. consisted OF an
ex-cOal miner, a glass engraver and 4 fish
peddler, while Messrs. Weihe and Martin
are iron workers and students"
In Miugo yesterday evening the feeling
was pretty high, and there was talk of the
K. of l.. Lodge giving up their charter if a
disagreeable settlement was forced upon
them. The fight is on and will be a bitter
one unless one side or the other gives in
soon.
On the first page appears Secretary Mar
tins answer TO Executive Bailey's mani
festo of yesterday.